Game of Thrones: Joffrey Was A Better King Than You Think

A new video from a Game of Thrones blog shows why Joffrey Lannister may have actually been a better king than you remember. Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) left a lingering sting on fans who loved to hated the volatile young king during his rule, mainly due to the senseless cruelty he often showed toward those beneath him. His poisoning in the season 4 episode “The Lion and the Rose” remains one of the more celebratory deaths in the show’s history.

While many fans may have been glad to finally see Joffrey go, it only reinforced how memorably compelling he was as a villain. But despite all of his irrationally violent acts, he wasn’t stupid. At times he flashed surprising foresight, and a new video reminds viewers of two of his strongest moments as king.

You can check out the video below, courtesy of A Blog Of Throneson Facebook. With the benefit of hindsight, Game of Thrones fans can now look back on the the show’s progression since Joffrey’s death and see that he was actually onto something with two big things revisited in a pair of clips. The first is a snippet of a conversation he had with Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) in the season 1 episode “Lord Snow”, expressing his desire for a “standing army of men loyal to the crown”. The second, even more prophetic clip is from the season 3 episode “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”, in which Joffrey seeks council on the threat of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons. He took them much more seriously than Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) did at the time.

Though Tywin wasn’t entirely dismissive of Aerys Targaryen’s daughter or the three beasts, he described them to Joffrey as “curiosities on the far side of the world” rather than a legitimate, imminent threat to the crown. He acknowledged after Joffrey’s death in season 4 that her army “must be dealt with”, but he still had confidence that his soldiers (perhaps with the help of the Dornish) would defeat the dragons, who “haven’t won a war in 300 years”.

Now that Daenerys’ forces laid waste to the Lannister and Tarly armies at the end of the season 7 episode “The Spoils of War”, it’s clear that Joffrey’s concerns about the Mother of Dragons and her airplane-sized children should have been heeded stronger than they were. And while Tywin’s death complicated matters, Kings Landing may not have descended into the chaotic power struggle that it became if the Lannisters had a better trained, more loyal army. If Tywin and Cersei had listened more closely to these two arguments Joffrey made, they ultimately may have been far better prepared for Daenerys’ inevitable arrival.

Although it’s ultimately all a moot point, as the Army of the Dead has been the true threat all along. And even though Joffrey turned out to be right about the dangers of Daenerys and the dragons at her disposal, it was sensible for the Lannisters to be concerned with the more immediate threat that the Starks posed to them at the time. The ex-king’s idea of soldiers loyal to the crown was also better in theory than in practice, as it was the kind of army that could have taken years, even generations to build effectively. That doesn’t take away the fact that despite being one of Game of Thrones’ most purely evil characters, Joffrey occasionally brought some sound thoughts to the table.